Hi Everyone. Well, after 15 years the RV-Dreams Community Forum is coming to an end. Since it began in August 2005, we've had 58 Million page views, 124,000 posts, and we've spent about $15,000 to keep this valuable resource for RVers free and open. But since we are now off the road and have settled down for the next chapter of our lives, we are taking the Forum down effective June 30, 2021. It has been a tough decision, but it is now time.
We want to thank all of our members for their participation and input over the years, and we want to especially thank those that have acted as Moderators for us during our amazing journey living and traveling in our RV and growing the RV-Dreams Family. We will be forever proud to have been founders of this Forum and to have been supported by such a wonderful community. Thank you all!!
I've returned, some of you MAY remember me. I was active on here back in 2009-2011 when my wife and I had decided to leave the rat-race and start planning to full-time RV work/travel. We thought we had it figured out and how we could make it work. The downward spiraling economy had other things in store for us.
In 2010, I lost my job as an IT Manager for a small wireless distribution company and 10 months later my wife lost her job as a process analyst for a major manufacturer of laundry and bathroom products. Well... we lost EVERYTHING. Houses, cars, valuables that we were planning on getting money from for our transition all went up in smoke OR were used to just survive!
The RV Dream was crushed. So we regrouped, and recareered. I took whatever job I could get in a hurry and Madonna (my wife) went back to grad school to get her Masters in Elementary education. We moved into a tiny 1 bedroom loft apartment and we ground it out for nearly 3 years. At the end of it, we found ourselves in new careers and we were actually able to buy a house again!
Now before you start wondering... what does this have to do with coming back here? Certainly sounds like we "sold out" to the man and started the grind all over again.... NOOOOOOOO!
One reason we were able to go from very comfortable lives making 6 figure salaries to nearly NOTHING was that we were not in any major debt. So, once we became established again we worked hard to not repeat our previous mistakes. The house we bought was in a great neighborhood and appreciating at a good clip post-downturn. Over the past 3 years we've been aggressively paying down that loan, keepin all other credit in check, paid off student loans, paid off vehicles, didn't get into much credit-card debt and saved, saved, saved. Now our RV Dream started to come back into view and we came up with a plan that was going to have us retiring in 6-7 years. The house would paid for in 2023, meaning we could use ALL the value out of it as cash for our next home, an RV garage sticks & bricks... pretty slick setup with a home builder in Northwestern AZ. We'd have enough money saved for a nice rig and off and away we would go!
I mean it's only 6 years, look how fast the past 10 went!! As we settled into our new and LAST careers, we both started to dread the thought of another 6-7 years doing what we do now. We started attending RV shows again recently, seeing some improvements in Motorhomes and it got us thinking and longing for that once forgotten dream and trying to make it a reality at a quicker clip. Today it HIT US like a ton of bricks. We were at an RV show right in our neighborhood, and a salesman came up to us and started the idle chit-chat of what were our plans... yadda, yadda, yadda. And he said something to us that just floored us. Why wait? You have no guarantees of a tomorrow, you're both still fairly young and spry enough. If you can do it financially DON'T WAIT. Now of course his goal was to appeal to our emotional side and get us to buy a rig TODAY, I told him that ain't happening... However, it got us thinking.
So after we saw what we wanted to see, we went home this afternoon and started crunching numbers... and... We are now 16 months away from full-timing!
This plan will stick!!
We ditched the RV Garage Sticks and Bricks idea because we discovered that all we were doing was waiting to pay off the house in full... but we completely ignored the fact that we've paid down so much of this loan that we're in a good position to sell it and come out ahead enough to get us started.
All the money we've been socking away toward paying the house off will now go straight into our pockets and into savings and in 16 months between savings and cash on hand and proceeds from the house we'll have more than enough for a rig to get started. We have other income sources that can pay the day to day, so what in the living hell are we waiting for??
We're not!
May of 2019 Madonna will walk away from her classroom for the last time and I'll be saying goodbye to my current job and off and away we go!!!
It feels good to be back in the saddle and taking control of this again!!!
To top it off... Howard and Linda are in town and will be doing a seminar at a local RV show next weekend! We will have to introduce ourselves for sure.
Ok, I'm done for now.
Tony (DagoRanch) and Madonna.
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Tony & Madonna Class of 2011 Flunkies Class of 2019
Another member of the graduating class of 2019.... welcome... back (I guess is the thing to say, though we didn't join this forum until late 2013 so you are new to us at least.) It's all good.
Where there's a will there's usually always a way, and if the "WHY" is big enough, the "HOW" eventually surfaces.
Nothing worth having ever comes easy to most of us, but with diligent planning, and taking massive action, we can all achieve (sometimes with a little compromise), what we really want in life in the big scheme of things.
We've been longing, with naturally some apprehension, to try full timing for several years now, but the deep connection with our children (late 20's & mid 30's), and events unfolding we've for now compromised over the past few years to "extended" travels, which have been awesome.
Getting our ducks in a row to hit the road for about 4-5 months next month again, and we can see more woods for the trees today moving forwards than ever on the horizon :)
SD.
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Breathtaking Alberta. Her Mountains Draw You But Her People Bring You Back
I admire your determination to follow your dreams. It will be worth all the efforts to reach your goal. We too planned for years and the last five years have been a blast. Let the adventure begin!!!
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Russ & Terri Ranger
Travel since July 2013
Home base: Buckeye,AZ
Wandering the USA & Canada in our Holiday Rambler Endeavor 40' PDT Motorhome
Travel so far: 49 States - International Travel -19 countries
Where there's a will there's usually always a way, and if the "WHY" is big enough, the "HOW" eventually surfaces.
That is the truth right there! I'm known for throwing out big ideas that make no sense to most folks, and these same folks are amazed when I actually pull them off, usually in very unconventional ways. Take for instance the fact that I've said for years that I'd be retired by 55, without any concrete plan. People thought I was nuts. Yet, next year I'll be 52. Hah!!! Now my retirement doesn't exactly look like retirement, I'll be busy doing things... the difference is I won't be doing a 9-5 gig, more like I'll work doing what I want, when I want and how I want. And having fun along the way and seeing this great country!
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Tony & Madonna Class of 2011 Flunkies Class of 2019
Winnebago TT 2101DS & 2020 Silverado LTZ Z71. 300 watts WindyNation solar w/MPPT, 2 Trojan T-125s. TALL flag pole. Prefer USFS, COE, BLM, USF&WS, NPS, TVA, state/county camps. 14 year Army vet-11B40 then 11A - old MOS 1542 & 1560.
I think we nailed down our rig. Was checking out a 30 foot Class C at yet another RV show this weekend (yes we have lots of RV shows all year long out here) It's a Forest River Forester with 2 slides, an outdoor kitchen and is plenty roomy and livable for both of us. It literally checks off all of our must haves including decent CCC in a C. The only downside is it's a Ford V10 gasser and I'm not looking forward to 7 mpg... but there's really nothing we can do about that. All this at a price that makes it even more doable SOONER! We may very well be out of here by October now!!!
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Tony & Madonna Class of 2011 Flunkies Class of 2019
Winnebago TT 2101DS & 2020 Silverado LTZ Z71. 300 watts WindyNation solar w/MPPT, 2 Trojan T-125s. TALL flag pole. Prefer USFS, COE, BLM, USF&WS, NPS, TVA, state/county camps. 14 year Army vet-11B40 then 11A - old MOS 1542 & 1560.
A far cry from what we were thinking with a Forester, but this Super C came on my radar and was too good to resist.
So, there's no turning back now. This pumps up our timeline of getting the House sold and moving into the rig. We'll be fulltime, just not traveling full-time until next May.
We did it!!!!!
-- Edited by DagoRanch on Saturday 17th of March 2018 09:13:11 PM
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Tony & Madonna Class of 2011 Flunkies Class of 2019
